A person's vitals, such as temperature, blood oxygen levels, respiration rate, relative blood pressure, etc., may need to be monitored periodically typically using one or more instruments. For example, instruments for obtaining vitals of a user include blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, SpO2 measurement devices, glucose level meters, etc. Often, multiple instruments must be used to obtain vitals of a person. This monitoring process is time consuming, inconvenient and is not always continuous.
In addition, detection of substances and measurement of concentration level or indicators of various substances in a user's blood stream is important in health monitoring. Currently, detection of concentration levels of blood substances is performed by drawing blood from a blood vessel using a needle and syringe. The blood sample is then transported to a lab for analysis. This type of monitoring is invasive, non-continuous and time consuming.
Furthermore, detection of a patient's blood type (also known as blood group) is vital prior to a safe blood transfusion. Determination of blood groups is a vital factor for overall healthcare needs. The human race by nature has one of a plurality of blood groups, e.g. such as A, B, AB and O. During blood transfusion any mismatch can lead to great harm or possible the death of a person. Hence it is very important to identify the blood group of a person or animal.
The blood type notations (e.g., A, B, AB, O) indicate the antigens present on the surface of red blood cells. For example, the ABO and Rh factor indicate different types of antigens on the surface of red blood cells. Current blood typing procedures include drawing a blood sample and testing the blood sample using different reagents. For example, three separate tests are performed using different reagents with either A, B or Rh antibodies. The reagents attach to the antigens on the patient's red blood cells. The blood will agglutinate when the antigens in the patient's blood match the antibodies in the test tube. The blood type may thus be discerned. However, these known blood typing procedures require drawing blood from a blood vessel using a needle and syringe. The blood sample must then be transported to a lab for the analysis. So, this type of monitoring is invasive and time consuming, especially in an emergency situation when no lab is present.
One current non-invasive method is known for measuring the oxygen saturation of blood using pulse oximeters. Pulse oximeters detect oxygen saturation of hemoglobin by using, e.g., spectrophotometry to determine spectral absorbencies and determining concentration levels of oxygen based on Beer-Lambert law principles. In addition, pulse oximetry may use photoplethysmography (PPG) methods for the assessment of oxygen saturation in pulsatile blood flow. The subject's skin at a ‘measurement location’ is illuminated with two distinct wavelengths of light and the relative absorbance at each of the wavelengths is determined. For example, a wavelength in the visible red spectrum (for example, at 660 nm) has an extinction coefficient of hemoglobin that exceeds the extinction coefficient of oxihemoglobin. At a wavelength in the near infrared spectrum (for example, at 940 nm), the extinction coefficient of oxihemoglobin exceeds the extinction coefficient of hemoglobin. The pulse oximeter filters the absorbance of the pulsatile fraction of the blood, i.e. that due to arterial blood (AC components), from the constant absorbance by nonpulsatile venous or capillary blood and other tissue pigments (DC components), to eliminate the effect of tissue absorbance to measure the oxygen saturation of arterial blood. Such PPG techniques are heretofore been limited to determining oxygen saturation.
As such, there is a need for a continuous and non-invasive health monitoring system and method that measures user vitals and monitors concentration levels or indicators of one or more substances in blood flow as well as determines blood type of a patient.